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Tuesday, 31 December 2013

What a time to be alive...

12 hours.

That’s all that
remains of 2013.

As I sit here on my
bed (which is also a very good desk) scrolling through all the ‘year in review’
type-tweets on Twitter, I can’t help but wonder; what did I do all year?? What have I achieved? What
have I learned? What’s with the fascination with the Echelon? (Since we’re
asking questions I thought I’d throw that one in there :p) It’s got me feeling
all nostalgic (and given me a wicked case of The Feels) so I thought I’d take a
look back at my 2013. The highs, the highers, and the highests. Because it’s
been a pretty damn good year.

At the end of 2012
I packed up my things and moved across the country to be closer to family.
After 7 years of living away from them, it was time to come home. Turns out
that was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It was the first of many
awesome things to come.

The first awesome
thing that happened was SingStar. I know I’ve written about this before, but it
needs to feature on this list. It was through SingStar that I discovered the
band that would go on to literally change my life. As I write that I can’t help
but think ‘has it really only been a
year with them?’ It’s actually hard to remember life before them. That’s
probably weird, right? :p

It’s no secret that
I suffered from a hard-core case of the Dark and Twisties for the majority of
my life. I was at the stage where I’d just accepted that I was going to be “severely
depressed” for the rest of my life, and there was no point in fighting it.

It’s funny how
things happen.

Someone* once said
that sometimes in order to find yourself, you have to first lose yourself. I
couldn’t agree with that more. I had lost myself completely, but through Mars,
I found myself again. I fell apart for over a decade, but got back up again. Now
I am Bright and Shiny and annoyingly cheerful. Just ask anyone unfortunate
enough to follow me on Twitter :p The Girl With Words: Spewing Rainbows Onto
Your TL since ’13. This time last year I
would NOT have believed that was possible. 2013, I think I’m in love with you.

Through Mars I also
met some of the most awesome people on the planet. I have made some of the best
friends I’ve ever had, and they’ve been a HUGE contributor to my wonderful
year. One of the best parts of this year was getting the opportunity to meet
some of them in August. I can honestly say that was one of the best weekends of
my life. I freaking heart you guys SO BIG.

I really mean it
when I say Mars changed my life. Besides, you know, helping me finally win my
lifelong battle with depression, they were the reason I decided to finally
pursue my dream of becoming an author. They make me believe that dreams are
possible. They are even the reason that you are reading this blog right now,
and that I’ve found the courage to share HEAT with you all. They taught me to
be brave, fight for what I believe in and make my dreams my reality. And so I
shall.

When my books are
finally published (optimism and all that), you’d better believe that they will
feature heavily in my acknowledgements. In fact, I’ve already written it.
Optimism and all that :p

Hmmm. So I don’t
know how this post turned out to be solely about Mars. I guess they’ve had a
bigger influence on me than I realised! 2013 has honestly been the best year of
my life. I went on some awesome trips with my family, spent a blissful girly
week with my real-life BFF, adopted the world’s cutest dog and fell in love
with life. Sure, there were some low points (even some truly awful points) but
this new-improved version of me seems to be much more capable of letting the
negative things go and just focusing on the awesome. I like that. I don’t know
what 2014 will bring (besides the fact that MARS IS COMING, PEOPLE. MARS. IS .COMING. T-minus 84 days, 4 hours and 47 minutes to go!!), but I have the
distinct feeling that it will be awesome. Why? Because I have faith that it
will be. And everyone knows that all we need is faith. Faith is all we need.

Happy New Year,
everyone. I hope 2014 is the year that all your dreams come true :)

Xo

TITLE LYRICS: ‘Do Or Die’ by At This Point I Really Shouldn’t Have To
Tell You :p

(As sung during a live show, where Jared likes to mess with the
lyrics :3)